Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:24 pm
Hillary Clinton isn’t just beating Donald Trump. She is destroying the Republican nominee on a level that hasn’t been seen in more than thirty years.
Ryan Struyk of ABC News tweeted the margins of every October ABC News poll going back to 1984:
ABC poll: Clinton +12
2012: Obama +4
2008: Obama +7
2004: Bush +3
2000: Tie
1996: Clinton +8
1992: Clinton +6
1988: Bush +7
1984: Reagan +18To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) October 23, 2016
As Trump started to slide, the best case scenario for Republicans looked like it might be 2008. After the release of the 2005 tape where Trump bragged about sexual assault, the election began to look more like Bill Clinton’s rout of Bob Dole in 1996. After a terrible third debate claims that the election is rigged, and even more sexual assault allegations, Republicans are now looking at a potential defeat that is close to 1984 levels.
No one expects Hillary Clinton to carry 49 of 50 states like Ronald Reagan did in beating Walter Mondale. Clinton won’t win the Electoral College 525-13, but Reagan won the popular vote that year by 18 points. It is the only double-digit win in a presidential election in the modern era of American politics. (With rounding up, one could say Reagan won by 10 in 1980, but regarding straight-up double digits, Reagan in 1984 is the only solid double-digit margin). Hillary Clinton is on pace to do something that hasn’t been done in decades. She could run up a margin of victory that happens less than once a generation.
Many will blame her margin of victory on Trump, and while the Republican nominee has run one of the worst campaigns in history, it would be unfair to overlook how well managed the Clinton campaign. Hillary Clinton has run a very good campaign.
Trump being a bad candidate is one side of the equation, but to achieve a double-digit lead in October, Hillary Clinton had to be able to take advantage of Trump’s implosion.
The history that Hillary Clinton may make won’t just be tied to her gender. Clinton could also make history with a dominant victory on election day.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
